It's so massive, in fact, that the ice sheet "creates its own weather," The New Yorkerreports. "Its mass is so great that it deforms the Earth, pushing the bedrock several thousand feet into the mantle. Its gravitational tug affects the distribution of the oceans."

But with rising global temperatures, the great Greenland ice sheet has been shrinking at an alarming rate. Since 2012, at least a trillion tons of ice have been lost. And the melt is only accelerating: In 1993, Greenland ice-loss made up just 5 percent of the rise in global sea levels. In 2014, it contributed 25 percent.

"Nobody expected the ice sheet to lose so much mass so quickly," one geophysicist told Science magazine. "Things are happening a lot faster than we expected."

In addition to Greenland's land ice, its floating ice — glaciers, icebergs, and sea ice — is also melting. While its not significant enough to contribute to rising sea levels alone, floating ice-melt does lead to dangerous side effects and feedback loops: Glaciers are releasing new bacteria into the world, potentially unlocking new diseases. Some of these bacteria are also darkening the ice, causing it to absorb more heat and melt faster. Similarly, sea ice reflects the sun's rays back into the atmosphere, protecting the ocean's chill. Without it, the water absorbs far more solar energy, which causes it to heat and expand, leading to rising waters.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

The Associated Press photographer David Goldman recently accompanied a team of international researchers on a voyage into the Arctic, where he captured Greenland's melting ice in vivid, close-up portraits, exposing the natural wonder of this disappearing northern ice.